Neccesary Equipment for Discussing Politics.

Since it most resembles head-butting a brick wall, I suggest this:

Banned Words and Phrases and Fashions for 2006

On the heals of last week's Airing of Grievances, there are certain words, phrases and concepts that are just driving me nuts, so I call for them to be banned until at least Jan 1, 2007.

#1 - Kerfluffle - Not only do I dislike the word for aesthetic reasons, I find that it is used to dismiss the signifigance of any inconvenient dispute. I move that the word be moved back where it rightly belongs - to discuss feuds between some combination of Lindsay Lohan, Matt Leinart, Taradise, Hillary Duff, Collin Farrell and Talan from Laguna Beach.

#2 - References to Captain Renault - Yes, we know, you are shocked, shocked to find out that X has done Y. It was still funny the 573rd time, but it's getting old.

#3 - Sarcasm that ends with "because then the terrorists win" or "why do you hate America?" - Actually, scratch that, there's still comedy to be mined from those two.

#4 - Any mention of "K-Fed's" rapping career. Look into my eyes. It. Never. Happened.

#5 - Kobe's leggings. Unless he adds legwarmers. Some people have BDS (Bush Derrangement Syndrome) I have KDS. I can't remember the last player I liked to see lose more, and that includes Slappy. (And for what it's worth, The Glove looked downright frisky yesterday. If GP can do that come April/May, Heat-Spurs in the finals.

All I Wanted for Christmas Was My Two Front Meme's

And thanks to Tim F., I'm halfway there...the Meme of Four. (Inicidentally, the Rule of Four is a fine book.)

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life: Law Clerk, Records Temp, Dot.Com Start-up Grunt, Economics Tutor

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over: Tombstone, Fight Club, Heartbreak Ridge, A Few Good Men.

Four Places I've Lived:Anchorage, AK; Northfield, MN; Minneapolis, MN and Cambridge, UK.

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch: Sportscenter (non-Stuyah editions), Lost, Boondocks and West Wing (no, that one sucks now) ER (damnit) America's Next Top Model (where'd that come from? Oh yeah) The Wire.

Four Places I've Been On Vacation: Vegas baby; London; Zagreb, Croatia (was still Yugo at the time); Binder Lake, MN.

Four Websites I Visit Daily: Althouse, Volokh, Either End of the Curve, Hit and Run.

Four of My Favorite Foods: Wings 'n' Things (best wings west of Buffalo. I shit you not;) Pepporoni Pizza; Chicken Massumun Curry; the cornbread muffins at Famous Dave's.

Four Places I'd Rather Be: Fenway; it being Monday night as I write this, Sally's in Dinkytown; Vegas; Bed.

Four Albums I can't Live Without PE's Apocalypes 91; U2 All that You Can't Leave Behind (unless the iTunes "Complete U2" counts, obviously); Clapton From the Cradle; Led Zep pick any of 1-3.

No passing along since most of the people I would tag, I tagged last week. (But, Some people haven't responded yet, so Will, here is chance number 2 for you...)

Catch-22 and the NSA

First, thanks to J. Cole for the linky-love.

Second, to paraphrase, just because people are being paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't after them.

As I said over there, I don't feel people on either side of this debate have a great handle on the crux of the issue. As to the legal analysis, I don't feel like repeating it, but I.M. Kierkagaard has been keeping a link repository, so start there. The one I tend to agree with most is Orin Kerr's, (and if you read Krauthammer's WaPo column, Kerr's piece is a must as Krauthammer selectively quotes his way to a completely different conclusion than reached by Kerr, but selective quotation seems to be par for the course on this whole issue.)

The problem is this - the President has wide-ranging, perhaps plenary, power over certain matters. In order to ensure that those powers are not exceeded, the other branches must monitor and oversee. But that very oversight serves as a limit on the unlimitable. In order for such intractable problems not to arise, a certain degree of self-restraint is neccesary. As George Will eloquently put it:

Charles de Gaulle, a profound conservative, said of another such, Otto von Bismarck -- de Gaulle was thinking of Bismarck not pressing his advantage in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War -- that genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop. In peace and in war, but especially in the latter, presidents have pressed their institutional advantages to expand their powers to act without Congress. This president might look for occasions to stop pressing.

More specifically, the President probably has unlimited power to conduct surveilance and searches on actual suspected terrorists, while he has no power to do the same to U.S. citizens who are not, sans warrant. The key point is the determination as to who is 'an actual terrorist suspect'. If this determination is solely left to executive discretion, that power has no effective check. On the other hand, judicial or congressional oversight over this determination inherently cabins the power to surveil actual terrorists - he has to make a showing (72 hours after the fact, mind you) that he has identified legitimate targets.

My skepticism over the whole affair is two-fold. First, I do not trust this administration. I did not like them from the start for policy reasons, and they've done very little in five years to convince me otherwise. I feel that making political issues out of real security concerns is shameful (a shame to be shared across the spectrum, but the party in power bears the brunt, IMO). Secondly, I would be much more favorably inclined towards these claims of neccesary power if they were working harder to demonstrate neccesity. As Kevin Drum notes,

This is the most infuriating aspect of George Bush's approach to terrorism: that he treats it as a partisan weapon instead of a genuinely serious business. Chemical plants really are a prime target for terrorists, but Dick Cheney doesn't want to annoy his corporate pals, so EPA's plans to address it get shelved. WMD counterproliferation really is important, but it's not very sexy and doesn't serve any partisan ends since Democrats support it too. So it's ignored and underfunded. Detention of enemy combatants when the enemy is an amorphous group like al-Qaeda is a genuinely vexing issue that deserves a serious bipartisan airing, but the Justice Department treats it like a child's game, inviting barely concealed rage from a conservative judge who thought this was supposed to be life-and-death stuff.

I'm not sure if Drum is accurate in his assesment, but it sure looks that way at times. And given that appearance, claims of neccesity begin to look like transparent attempts at a power grab - not aided by Gonzales's and Co.'s novel approaches to certain legal issues, or shoehorning War on Drugs anti-meth provisions into the PATRIOT act. So, as I said yesterday, try harder, and then come ask for more if you need it.

I Forgot One...

Before I move off into other things, I totally forgot one major item from my list of grievances.

11) The Ying Yang Twins - For pairing the thickest beat of the year with the foulest lyrics since Luke Campbell hung up his mic. One of those songs you hear in the background and start nodding to subconsciously and then, all of a sudden "Wait til you see my... WHAT?" (boom-Boom-BOOM, BOOM-Boom-boom. Good, now the beat is stuck in your head too. Like damn-damn-damn-damn... I CAN'T MAKE IT STOP...)

And...Done

5:12 PM AKST: Finished shopping. This is the ealiest I've been done in five years.

Pooh's KwanzmakuhYear's Day Airing of Grievances

John Cole has the wonderful idea of getting everything off your chest now so you can start the new year fresh.

So, here goes.

1) Dubya. I could go of on a long-winded diatribe, but it's all been said. Often. Really, all I can add is "try harder".

2) Shills of all shape and size. Be yee Kos, PowerLine or just what Steve H. might call "PajoompaLoompas". I'll echo the "try harder" bit from above. Try harder to think for yourself. Try harder to think before you talk. Try harder to listen. Try harder to be as skeptical of things said by those you agree with as you are of those you don't. Accept being wrong. It happens to the rest of you from time to time...

3) Larry Luchinno. Jackass. You won, once, and are in full Huizenga scorched-earth mode now. Well done.

4) Sony and the RIAA. Putting the (my) "comp"(uter) in your incompetence. Whatever happened to 'you break it, you buy it?' And the RIAA, thanks for running creativity in main-stream music into the ground. I might just start having to listen to techno, just to hear some variety. Thanks for Ashleeeeeeeeeigh Simpson too.

5) Kaiser. You're a dumbass. (Edit: apparently people thought this was a bit strong. Fair enough. I accept your grievance that I am an asshole in my list of grievances. But since I've aired it now, I can let it go in one week and never grieve about it again.)

6) The producers of Lost. You have no idea where you are going and you are dragging me down with you. Stop it.

7) The Religious WrongRight. Practice what you preach. Or call on god to smite Dover, same thing right? And how was it that the gays and liberals caused 9/11Katrina again? Thanks for NutraScience^Tm as well. What do you mean some of the ingredients may rot my faculties and cause me to be outsourced?

8) Adam Morrison. Why oh why bring the sleaze-stache back? Other than that, keep doin' what you doin.

9) David Stern. Why institute a racist dress code and then let them wear pajamas on the court?

10) Blogging. Taking up all my time. At least when I was playing poker I was getting paid for it...

Stevens SMASH

Uncle Ted, not best pleased over losing on ANWR, despite the power of his lucky tie. But hey, he's got a bridge to sell us...

(for the record, I'm agnostic on ANWR, but I don't feel strongly about it...)

NOBODY Expects the Secularist Inquisition

Sometimes, certain people just start to bore me. The makers of NutraScience^tm, tossing a nutty:

"This decision is a poster child for a half-century secularist reign of terror that's coming to a rapid end with Justice Roberts and soon-to-be Justice Alito," said Richard Land, who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is a political ally of White House adviser Karl Rove. "This was an extremely injudicious judge who went way, way beyond his boundaries -- if he had any eyes on advancing up the judicial ladder, he just sawed off the bottom rung."

Yes, we know. And a tornado will wipe Dover from the map. On the other hand, I am 90% certain that the NSA is reading Judge Jones's email as we speak. Because as everyone knows, if you oppose ID, the terrorists win.

Update: (via John Cole): A federal prosecutor is looking into bringing perjury charges against certain defense witnesses:

U.S. Middle District Attorney Thomas A. Marino said yesterday that decision will take time because there is "a lot of reading to do" to determine if the statements rise to the level of a crime.

"I want to question a couple of people who were present," he said. They will not include Judge John E. Jones III, who presided over the case, he said.

And to complete my overwhelming schadenfreude about the whole thing:

Witold Walczak, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented parents opposed to the policy, said any decision to bring perjury charges would be made by the prosecutor's office.

That sounds like the ACLU is saying "sorry guys, you're on your own".

And So It Begins.

Closed Circuit to Pops and the SlatRat

Look, I couldn't be happier for you. Except for, well, me looking like this at some point in the near future:

Unfrozen Caveman MFY

Yeah, yeah, yeah the Evil Empire signed Johnny Damon. $4 years, $13 mil per. I think this is the rare deal that hurts everyone involved. The Sawx obviously need a CF, and I'm guessing the price for, say, Jeremy Reed just went up. The Yankees overpaid for an aging CF with no throwing harm to, er, replace their aging CF with no throwing arm (who the re-signed anyway.) Johnny has to cut his hair, and be buttoned-down corporate-whore guy. That worked out pretty well for the last 'free-spirit' they signed. Aside from the whole Balco thing. Oh and the almost dying from an intestinal parasite thing.

My Sportscenter moment.

I hate Vince Carter, but he had his second pantheon level dunk of the season last night. (The first was the 'lefty hang-in-the-air-for-3 seconds and DunkInZo'sFace' from a few weeks ago). Just thought I'd share.

Record Companies Don't Understand How Their Own Business Works

But if you do, it's prosecutable.

Recently Judge Easterbrook (correctly) ruled that it is not a defense to copywrite infringement to claim you were acting in the best interests of the holder. That presents problems when the holder has completely lost sight of where its interests should lie. To quote Joel Jacobsen:

Just take a look at the archived press releases of the Recording Industry Association of America: "RIAA Praises Department of Justice, FBI and Nashville Police Department", "New York State Police Raid Local Warehouse", etc. When the recording industry praises cops rather than musicians, its problems go far beyond the capability of cops to solve.

And this problem is that most music that gains wide airplay sucks. So in order to hear new music that we might like to buy, what options do we the consumer have but to download? Apple was the first to really address this, both by allowing generous samples on a-try-before-you buy basis, and allowing a la carte pricing. If iTunes had been available in the late 90's, I seriously doubt that Napsterization would have seemed such a big problem to Lars Ulrich. (Try making good music again. And for god's sake, don't ever cut your hair again...)

For some reason, they don't realise that things like mashups are good for them. I didn't buy The Black Album until I heard The Grey Album. Anyone who somehow hasn't heard American Idiot is probably going to get it after listening to American Edit. As Matt Yglesias says:

Preventing non-commercial mashups will obviously directly reduce the amount of quasi-original music out there by a huge amount if it's rigorously enforced. Permitting them, by contrast, could only have a tiny impact on artists' incentives to write songs. If anything, a good mashup like "A Stroke of Genius" is going to increase the Strokes' record sales.

ID Bench-Slapped

You may have heard that the former school board of Dover, PA (former because they got booted for being kooks, most likely) had instituted an "All Intelligent Design, all the time" biology curriculum. (Introducing "NutraScience"^tm brand, artificial learning supplement. Warning: Contains Religion-like substances.) This being America, certain parents sued. Today, a federal district court judge ruled on the matter. A snippet:

The breathtaking inanity of the board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial . . . The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.

As Clint Eastwood might say, "Don't go away mad. Just go away."

In reading the opinion, it is clear that the judge will be branded as an anti-religious activist. That is, if Pat Robertson fails to have him smitten from above. The fact that he is applying voluminous precedent invalidating "creation science" claptrap as state endorsement of religion will be ignored. Activism will once again mean "judgifying I don't like."

Incidentally, I was struck by something in the opinion. In Arkansas, it was illegal to teach evolution in public schools until 1968. 1968. That just blows my mind.

Overheard at Dinner with Pops

Sometimes, fantasy sports are the gift that keeps on giving.

"I'd rather have Pujols than Slappy."

A Sign of the Times.

I literally cannot tell whether this is parody or not:

Bush needs the authority to do whatever is necessary to protect America. Bush, alone, has the knowledge and judgement to know what is necessary. Surely, the same Constitution, which gives him the sacred responsibility to protect America, gives him the authority to do whatever he judges to be necessary to that object, because, after all, the Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Hold me.

Don Shula, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Champaign's on us...

Well, at least Tony Dungy can really rest his starters for the playoffs now..

W-W-Warrants

Wading back into politics (in contradiction of my new, yet unstated policy) for a moment, why not get a warrant? The legal justification for warrantless wiretaps of U.S. persons is crap and clearly so. But that ignores the question of why bother? You can tap-for-free for 3 days before getting a warrant. And it's not like getting a warrant is hard under FISA. So I'm left scratching my head, asking why.

Of course, the maxim to never suppose actual malice when mere incompetence is a sufficient explanation probably holds.

How to Keep Your Ego at a Manageable Size

Make stupid predictions, which are exposed as such in one day. Yeah, Texas was without Buckman, and Gibson went out early, but it's TENNESSEE. When was the last year the TN Women's team couldn't beat the men's? (Parenthetically, why not hire her to coach the men's team? Like the players wouldn't be scared out of their minds by her...)

Why ARE XBox Prices So Low?

At Volokh they raise this question:

At the moment, Microsoft is easily selling out the half-million or so Xbox 360 units (there's no official number) for prices starting at $300 for the basic package. Why doesn't Microsoft price them at $700 instead?

My thoughts:

1. By charging $300 they could also be raising the long term competitve price - The first wave of vidiots (myself included) have a relative inelastic demand for the product and might have paid well up towards $700. If people see all that excess demand at $300, they intuitively feel that $300 is a reasonable price given that the 'competitve' ebay price is much higher. This has the effect of increasing demand. I think Pops felt better about paying $X for the opening day seats at Fenway this year when everyone around at the game us paid $2 or $3X.

Plus when they drop the price to $250 on Feb 1. (my guess, based on various store's return policies), it will seem like a steal.

2. They make their money on games, (and probably the online subscription service) not the console. Don't kid yourself, your Box XCosts $300 now plus $100 or so/month in games.

3. Any publicity is good publicity. "Just How Bad Will The Great XBOX Famine of '05 Get?" newspaper asks.

4. Relatedly, scarcity can create demand - lines outside clubs, full restaraunts etc. If people are willing to wait for it, it must be good right?

5. This being MS, there's a good chance the first iteration won't work. At all. There is a non-zero chance that many will be returned on Dec. 26.

6. Have another piece of cheese Mr. LabRat...

update: A commenter in the original thread reminds us that $300 doesn't really get you that much (1 controller, no game, NO BACKWARDS compatibility, not 'net functionality...